Copy of Students as Producers of IT Departments

2.8 The University is taking a strategic approach to student engagement. A Student Engagement Strategy has been produced and is underpinned by the recently appointed Student Engagement Officer. Student representatives are now serving on periodic review panels and will soon be involved in programme approval. As the commitment involved differs from that required of a traditional student representative, these new roles have been successful in attracting students who have not previously participated in the institution's quality assurance processes in a formal sense. The systematic engagement of students at all levels across a wide range of quality assurance and enhancement processes is a feature of good practice.

Dan Derricott

Students as Producers of IT Departments

Dan Derricott, Student Engagement Officer, University of Lincoln

@danderricott @UniLincoln #ucisa13

• Graduate and former SU Vice-President at the University of Lincoln
• Now Student Engagement Officer in the VC's Office at Lincoln
• About to study part-time online with the University of York
• QAA Board / Chair, Student Advisory Board
• European Students' Union / European Universities Association / European Network of Quality Assurance Agencies / European Quality Assurance Forum

@danderricott

Look to create opportunities that both inspire students and inform your work?

It's about enhancing the student experience in two ways

- making better informed decisions

- helping students 'get involved' and get more from their experience

The national perspective

The CHERI report, 2009:

"Institutions view student engagement as central to enhancing the student experience, but more emphasis seems to be placed on viewing students as consumers and rather less on viewing students as partners in a learning community. For student unions, the emphasis tends to be on the latter aspect. Notions of students as ‘partners in a learning community’ seem to be stronger in certain subject areas (for example, Art and Design and Performing Arts) than others."

This resulted in HEFCE funding for various projects by NUS, HEA, QAA et al

National momentum has built up alongside institutional change.

Sector champions:

Innovative institutions:

• Bath
• Birmingham City
• Exeter
• Lincoln

The national perspective

QAA Institutional Review: University of Lincoln 2012

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/InstitutionReports/reports/Documents/RG1091Lincoln.pdf

Student as Producer

• Students on panels for all periodic reviews and programme (re)approval events
• Student Advisory Board
• Students on interview panels for new staff (all teaching & management posts and relevant support posts)
• Bigger Student-led awards for staff (including prof. services award by self-nomination)
• Reviewing transition & induction to embed an active approach to engaging
• Student & staff one day conference on technology-enhanced-learning
• Shake-up of support for student reps
• Increased student representation on University and College committees (Student Experience Committee = 10 student members)
• Student Engagement in Professional Support Departments

First year of implementation

Professor Mike Neary

Dean of Teaching & Learning

at the University of Lincoln since 2007

@mikeneary

Professor Mary Stuart

Our organising principle for teaching & learning

It embeds research-engaged-teaching across the undergraduate curriculum - and is much more too...

Four underpinning inspirations:

• Ernest Boyer: core activities have become dysfunctional
• von Humboldt: the modern university (Berlin)
• 1968 student protest movement: students more than students
• Walter Benjamin in 1930s: how do radical intellectuals react in times of crisis

Student members of quality review panels

Vice-Chancellor

at the University of Lincoln since 2009

Closing the feedback loop, Student-led awards for staff

@lol1090507

Student Engagement Strategy

• Strand of our Teaching & Learning Plan, feeds into corporate strategy around the student experience

• Institution-wide plan for developing student engagement in quality and governance taking us to 2016. Refining & embedded existing practice and introduce new forms of engagement. Five themes:
• Engagement-ready students
• Engagement-ready staff
• Embedding student engagement
• Changing the conversation
• Celebrating and innovating

Engaged Professional Support Departments

The institutional perspective

In

2012: The Year of the Code

QAA replaced the Academic Infrastructure with the UK Quality Code

Brand new 'expectation' on student engagement:

The IT perspective

"Higher Education Providers take deliberate steps to engage all students, individually and collectively, as partners in the assurance and enhancement of their educational experience."

Where are we now from a QAA perspective?

UK Quality Code, Part B, Chapter 5

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Documents/Quality-Code-Chapter-B5.pdf

The Institutional Perspective

We believe in one community of scholars, where students get the most from their experience and where providers get the most from their students. This delivers a rich and personal student experience. This is Student as Producer.

• gained degree-awarding powers in 1992 as the University of Humberside, based in Hull.
• became the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside in 1996.
• in 2001, established as the University of Lincoln and a year later moved from Hull to a new purpose-built campus at Brayford Pool in Lincoln city centre.

• medium sized university
• 10,367 undergraduate & 1,355 postgraduate
• 1,331 members of staff

• Chapter launched, considered in institutional review from Sept 2013
• This will be the first chapter to be reviewed in a couple of years (likely to become more demanding in response to sector appetite)

• QAA has commissioned two pieces of academic research (which will help inform the review of the code):

• Examining changing perceptions and expectations of students with regards to quality ( Kings College Learning Institute)

• Examining the current state of development of student engagement practice in the UK (University of Bath)

• QAA & NUS capacity building projects:
• Students' Union staff development
• Annual student written submissions

The expectation comes with 7 indicators of good practice

define and promote the range of opportunities for any student to engage

create and maintain an environment within which students and staff engage in discussions

Arrangements exist for the effective representation of the collective student voice at all organisational levels

More info at: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/PARTNERS/STUDENTS/Pages/default.aspx

students and staff have access to training and ongoing support

Students and staff engage in evidence-based discussions based on the mutual sharing of information

disseminate and jointly recognise the enhancements made

The effectiveness of student engagement is monitored and reviewed at least annually

The IT

Perspective

Going beyond the norms of student engagement

Dan Derricott

Student Engagement Officer

Vice-Chancellor's Office

@danderricott